Monday,
Armenia’s Civil Aviation Chief Resigns
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Tatevik Revazian, head of Armenia's Civil Aviation Committee, speaks
at an official ceremony at Zvartnots airport, June 10, 2022.
The head of Armenia’s Civil Aviation Committee, Tatevik Revazian, resigned on
Monday after four years in office.
Revazian gave no clear reason for her resignation which she announced on her
Facebook page just days after returning to work from maternity leave.
“I have decided to return to the world of business,” she wrote without
elaborating.
Revazian suggested that her resignation will give rise to “fake news and
gossips.” “I am resigning from office with positive emotions and do not have
interpersonal differences with anyone,” she said.
Revazian, 34, was named to run the government agency in 2018 shortly after the
“velvet revolution” that brought Nikol Pashinian to power. She lived in Denmark
until then. Her family had migrated to the northern European country in the
1990s.
Revazian did not say whether she will stay in Armenia. She could not be reached
for comment on Monday.
The government did not immediately appoint a new head of its Civil Aviation
Committee. The agency was run by Revazian’s deputy Mihran Khachatrian during her
parental leave.
Armenia - A passenger jet at Yerevan's Zvartnots international airport,
10Apr2017.
Revazian’s four-year tenure was marred by the European Union’s decision in June
2020 to ban airlines registered in Armenia from carrying out regular flights to
EU member states. The EU’s executive European Commission said that they do not
meet international safety standards.
The ban sparked bitter recriminations between the Armenian government and its
political opponents. The latter accused the government and Revazian in
particular of incompetence. Pashinian put the blame on the country’s former
leadership.
“It wasn’t [Revazian’s] fault,” said Shahen Petrosian, who had headed the civil
aviation authority in the early 1990s. “She was just wrong not to have been
consistent enough to sort out what had happened in the past.”
Revazian actively encouraged Western budget airlines to start flying to Armenia.
Two such carriers, Ryanair and Wizz Air, launched first-ever flights between
Yerevan and several European cities in early 2020 only to end them weeks later
due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Top Security Official Avoids Prosecution For Violence
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia - Security forces disperse opposition protesters blocking a street in
Yerevan, May 2, 2022.
Armenian law-enforcement authorities have refused to prosecute the head of Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s security detail who reportedly assaulted two
journalists during a recent opposition demonstration in Yerevan.
Sargis Hovannisian, who runs the State Protection Service (SPS), was approached
by a cameraman and a reporter for the news website Mediahub.am on May 2 as he
apparently issued orders to security forces confronting opposition protesters at
a major street intersection.
Videos circulated online showed Hovannisian shouting at the female reporter,
Nare Gevorgian, before hitting her microphone. Gevorgian said he also kicked the
cameraman, Arman Gharajian, during the incident strongly condemned by Armenian
media groups.
Responding to the uproar, prosecutors ordered the Investigative Committee to
look into the incident and determine whether Hovannisian broke the law.
In a statement issued late last week, the committee cleared Hovannisian of any
wrongdoing. It put the blame on the journalists, saying that they interfered
with the high-ranking officer’s work and ignored his legitimate orders to stop
filming him and asking him questions.
Gevorgian on Monday denounced the Investigative Committee’s decision as
“ridiculous” and said she will challenge it in court.
“Our live stream and footage represent complete evidence of a crime,” the
journalist told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Armenia - Journalist Nare Gevorgian speaks to RFE/RL, .
Hovannisian, whose agency provides bodyguards to Pashinian and other senior
state officials, was already caught on camera kicking an opposition protester in
Yerevan last year. He was not prosecuted or subjected to disciplinary action.
Opposition leaders have questioned the legality of Hovannisian’s presence at
anti-government demonstrations, arguing that the SPS’s powers do not include
crowd control. Some of them have accused the SPS chief of ordering riot police
to beat up opposition supporters demanding Pashinian’s resignation.
Videos posted on social media in recent weeks showed some police officers
kicking and punching protesters arrested by their colleagues. None of those
officers is facing criminal proceedings.
Law-enforcement authorities have instead arrested and pressed assault charges
against more than three dozen participants of the Armenian opposition’s “civil
disobedience” campaign launched on May 1.
Armenian Authorities To Decriminalize Insults
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - The main government building in Yerevan, March 6, 2021.
After months of criticism from domestic and international civil rights groups,
the Armenian authorities have decided to scrap controversial legislation that
made it a crime to insult government officials and public figures.
Government-backed amendments to the Criminal Code passed by Armenia’s parliament
last summer made “grave insults” directed at individuals because of their
“public activities” an offense punishable with hefty fines or prison sentences
of up to three months.
More than 50 Armenians have been charged with defamation and hundreds of others
investigated on the same grounds since the amendments took effect in September.
At least six of them have already been found guilty by courts.
Many of those individuals have been prosecuted for insulting Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian.
Opposition and human rights groups have strongly criticized the criminalization
of insults. Western watchdogs such as Freedom House and Amnesty International
have added their voice to the criticism.
Pashinian’s political allies have repeatedly dismissed calls for a repeal of the
legislation, insisting that it does not constitute an infringement of free
speech.
In a surprise announcement, Justice Minister Karen Andreasian said over the
weekend that the punitive measure will be excluded from a new Criminal Code that
will come into force next month. Pashinian and other government officials now
believe that its enforcement is no longer “expedient,” he wrote on Facebook.
Andreasian defended the authorities’ earlier decision to criminalize insults,
saying that it was necessary to “rein in the shameful and unacceptable behavior
of certain groups and individuals.”
Armenian press freedom groups welcomed the move while questioning the reason for
it given by the minister. They said that the authorities simply bowed to the
domestic and Western pressure.
“I think that this law has never been necessary and it has not had any positive
impact,” said Ashot Melikian of the Yerevan-based Committee to Protect Free
Speech.
Melikian said that the Armenian Civil Code, which sets fines for insults, must
be the sole legal instrument for dealing with slanderous public statements. The
authorities tripled the maximum amount of those fines to 3 million drams
($6,800) last year.
All forms of slander and defamation had already been decriminalized in Armenia
in 2010 during former President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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